Illustration Photo: IBM Research and Airlight Energy, a Swiss-based supplier of solar power technology, are bringing a revolutionary, affordable solar technology to the market. By concentrating the sun’s radiation 2,000 times the system can convert 80 percent into useful energy to generate 12 kilowatts of electrical power and 20 kilowatts of heat on a sunny day — enough to power several average homes. (credits: IBM Research / Flickr Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0))

Illustration Photo: IBM Research and Airlight Energy, a Swiss-based supplier of solar power technology, are bringing a revolutionary, affordable solar technology to the market. By concentrating the sun’s radiation 2,000 times the system can convert 80 percent into useful energy to generate 12 kilowatts of electrical power and 20 kilowatts of heat on a sunny day — enough to power several average homes. (credits: IBM Research / Flickr Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0))